A Chicken Dish with Two Different Results

Uniform and delicious roast chicken with rice at Chef's Choice

A gourmet dish that's definitely not Chinese home cooking is roast chicken with glutinous rice. It definitely showcases the chef's skills as it requires de-boning the chicken and then flattening it butterfly style and adding a layer of cooked glutinous rice underneath. It's then roasted so that the skin is extra crispy.

By coincidence I managed to sample the same dish yesterday and today with extremely different results.

Last night we ordered it at Chef's Choice on Broadway and we were impressed when this roast chicken with sticky rice dish came to the table. The half portion of chicken was uniform in size, portioned into two-bite pieces. There was equal parts rice and very tender, flavourful chicken, topped with crispy skin.

A very different version that looks bloated

We were still thinking of the dish fondly when we went to Li's Chinese Restaurant in Kerrisdale tonight. It used to be called Lok's and we hadn't been there in years. The restaurant had recently changed hands, with more northern dishes, specifically spicy ones from Chongqing, though the former Cantonese-speaking owner works there on weekends. 

This place also had the roast chicken with glutinous rice and we ordered a half portion.

When it was served to us, it looked like a whole chicken, and was stuffed to the gills with rice -- the ratio was at least twice as much rice as chicken, as if it were bloated from carbo-loading. Each piece was so big that we were soon full (on rice) and we had to pack up the rest.

While it's great that this chef knows how to make this dish, and promotes it as a signature dish, it would be better if he could further refine it. This roast chicken with sticky rice dish is not about more bang for the buck, but about flavour and finesse, which unfortunately missed the mark here.

Baijiu-infused coffee, anyone?

China has baijiu-infused coffee drinks for the younger crowd

Looking for another way to spike your coffee instead of the usual splash of Bailey's?

How about adding baijiu?

There are some 14 baijiu-infused coffee drinks

Kweichow Moutai is now offering the fiery grain-based liquor in coffee drinks from lattes to Americanos in another bid to appeal to the younger generation.

Last summer the baijiu brand teamed up with China Mengniu Dairy to offer alcohol-infused ice cream and it was a hit -- at one point demand was so high it was sold out everywhere.

Perhaps Kweichow Moutai is hoping baijiu-infused coffee will be just as popular.

The coffee drinks using Moutai Flying Fairy at 43 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) were soft launched in Guangzhou last week with 14 different types of coffee beverages with prices ranging from 28 yuan to 42 yuan (US$4-US$6). Customers could also request a dose of higher grade baijiu called Moutai Flying Fairy which has 53 percent ABV.

The drinks are also available in Chongqing and Zhengzhou with varying menus and prices, but it's not clear where the coffee beans were sourced. Or does it matter as the taste might be overwhelmed by the baijiu fiery sensation down the throat?

Drinks range from 28 yuan to 48 yuan

Baijiu has always been synonymous with the Chinese ruling elite ever since Mao Zedong served it at state dinners for US President Richard Nixon during his historic visit in 1972. It is also the gift of choice to government officials, with the popular saying: "Those who buy Moutai never drink it, while those who drink it never buy it."

In addition, Moutai is the dominant player in the market with a market capitalisation of 2.12 trillion yuan (US$296 billion), almost three times more than its nearest competitor, Wuliangye.

Coffee purists will probably shun this latest creative collaboration, but China's coffee drinking market is still young and will probably be willing to try the baijiu-infused coffee at least once.

Will the Moutai overpower the taste of the coffee? And will the caffeine cancel out the alcoholic effects on the body? Too many questions.

Covid-19 Priorities in China, Hong Kong

Firefighter getting a PCR test, with wildfires burning nearby

Imagine you're a firefighter in Chongqing, Sichuan province, and there are wildfires just outside the city in the mountains.

So you and your fire brigade rush to the area -- only to be forced to take PCR tests for Covid-19 first.

Even though the forests are burning in the distance since August 2 caused by the heatwave there, fighting the pandemic takes priority.

One would think being outside and wearing oxygen masks there would not be the need to be tested for Covid-19.

But that's China's zero-Covid policy.

Lo scaremongering the public in Hong Kong

While Hong Kong doesn't have wildfires, its authorities are trying to scaremonger its residents into staying at home and locking themselves in their own homes until the pandemic is over.

Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau gave such a warning in yesterday's press conference. 

"We cannot promise that there may not be other social-distancing measures. In fact if you look at the whole world, there are different emerging diseases coming up, from SARS to the avian flu, we have different Ebola viruses, we have different emerging diseases coming up, and then this Covid came out two and a half years ago. Nobody would imagine it would stay for so long. and now we also have the monkey pox," he says, piling on a laundry list of viruses. 

"So there is no reason that the government can promise that we would not introduce other measures to control emerging infectious diseases," he continues. 

"Covid is still mutating, we are seeing new mutants coming up and in case there is a more virulent Covid coming up, mutant coming up, we cannot guarantee there will not be other social-distancing measures to control the pandemic or a new emerging disease."

If you are someone who doesn't have friends overseas telling you the Omicron strain is not that severe if as long as you are vaccinated, or if you don't read the news reports from other countries explaining the mutated virus is more transmissible but less severe -- you would be so terrified of even opening your door and going outside your home.

Then on top of that 30 percent of Hong Kong's elderly population over 80 have not even been vaccinated. Lo admitted as much. 

"If they contract Covid, the mortality rate is in the region of 16 percent. And we have to learn from history, in the fifth wave, we do suffer a serious situation with a high mortality of over 9,000 deaths. And the whole public health system is overworked," he says. 

"So I would urge you -- anyone who said that we can easily lift with the virus now as other countries I would submit I cannot agree with that as a responsible government we have to protect the health of our people, even though they are elderly, every life matters."

One can surmise that Lo is saying the entire Hong Kong population is being held hostage by these elderly people who refuse to get jabbed. 

What a responsible and caring government... one that is willing to slash and burn its own economy, its next generation and its future by continuing to shut Hong Kong down for the sake of the elderly.

It's a message not many people aren't going to understand and accept...